Melissa Gholson

Gholson, M., Laitusis, C., Burton, K. & Gooley, T. (2025, June 24). Bridging Accessibility Gaps: Connecting the Dots Between Paper Based and Technology Based Alternate Assessments. [Conference session]. Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2026 National Conference on Student Assessment, Austin, TX, United States.

Gholson, M., Karvonen, M., Kao, J., Keum, E., Christensen, L., Spangler, B. & Davidson, A., (2026, April 9). Validity and Consequential Evidence: Moving Measurement Forward for Alternate Assessments.  [Conference session]. Annual Meeting of National Council of Measurement in Education (NCME), Los Angelos, CA, United States.

Gholson, M. (2026, April 16). Bridging the gap using Dynamic Learning Maps; Building a future and empowering every student. [Invited speaker].  Tennessee Statewide Secondary Transition Academy

Karvonen, M. & Gholson, M. (2026, March 13). Moving the needle: Changing Postsecondary Readiness for students with extensive support needs. [Conference session]. Annual Meeting for the Council of Exceptional Children. Salt Lake, UT.

Gholson, M. (2025, April 25). Methods for designing inclusive assessments [Paper presentation]. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Inclusion and Accessibility for Education Assessment, Denver, CO, United States. 

Gholson, M., Laitusis, C., & Sato, E. (2025, June 25). Reimagining K–2 reading assessments for accessibility, fairness and technical quality [Paper presentation]. Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2025 National Conference on Student Assessment, Denver, CO, United States.

Gholson, M., Laitusis, C., Davidson, A., Karvonen, M., Ketterlin Geller, L., & Faulkner-Bond, M. (2024, April 13). Equity by design: New models for the implementation of universal design [Conference session]. Annual Meeting of National Council of Measurement in Education (NCME), San Francisco, CA, United States.

Gholson, M., Jaquith, J., Sova, L., Albee, T., Adkins, D., & Clark, A. (2023, June 25). Designing early childhood assessments: Improving student learning for all in grades K–2 [Conference session]. Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2023 National Conference on Student Assessment, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Gholson, M. (2022, April 23). Conceptualizations of fairness: An examination of assessment design. In: Broken systems of assessment: Addressing fairness and equity challenges in special populations. [Invited speaker] Annual Meeting of National Council of Measurement in Education (NCME), San Diego, CA, United States.

Cizek, G., Gholson, M., Garcia, E., & Shultz, P. K. (2022, April 23). Conceptualizations of fairness: An examination of assessment design. [Invited speaker] In: Broken systems of assessment: Addressing fairness and equity challenges in special populations. Annual Meeting of National Council of Measurement in Education (NCME).

Gholson, M. (2022, April 25). Reimagining accommodations: A review of the literature and future considerations for text to speech [Paper presentation]. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Special Education SIG.Gholson, M., Howley, L., & Albee, T. (2022). Research to improve educational outcomes: The Alternate ELPAC survey results. Annual meeting of the California Educational Research Association (CERA), Anaheim, CA.  

Gholson, M. (2022). Conceptualizations of fairness: An examination of assessment design. In Broken systems of assessment: Addressing fairness and equity challenges in special populations. [Invited speaker] Annual Meeting of National Council of Measurement in Education (NCME), April 23, 2022.   

Martineau, J. & Gholson, M. (2022). Beyond DIF: Expanding methodologies to attend to intersectional identities. National Council for Measurement in Education, April 9, 2022. 

Gholson, M. (2022). Reimagining accommodations. A review of the literature and future considerations for text to speech. [Paper presentation] Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), April 25, 2022. 

Gholson, M. (2022). Reimagining fairness: Designing equitable educational assessments. National Council for Measurement in Education, April 9, 2022.  

Gholson, M., Karvonen, M. Bacher, K. Winter, P., Sato, E. & Marion, S. (2021). Advances in validity evidence for alternate assessments. Presented at the Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2021 National Conference on Student Assessment, June 22, 2021.  

Davidson, A., Gholson, M., Guzman-Orth, D., David, K., & Sato, E. (2021). What’s a fair test? Past, present, and future of fair and equitable state assessments. Presented at the Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2021 National Conference on Student Assessment, June 21, 2021. 

Gholson, M., Steinberg, J., & Albee, T. (2021). Methods for improving validity for cognitive labs using purposeful sampling procedures. National Council for Measurement in Education, June 9, 2021. 

Gholson, M., Sova, L., Bacher, K., & Howley, L. (2020). Role of the pilot study using cognitive labs methodology in the design of the alternate ELPAC. Presented at the California Educational Research Association, Virtual, November 17, 2020. 

Gholson, M., Davidson, A., Karvonen, M. & Spitz, D. (2020). Fifty Years of Fairness: Reflections on Past, Present and Future Directions for Supporting Fair and Equitable State Assessments. Accepted for the Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2020 National Conference on Student Assessment, Denver, CO. June 15, 2020. 

Michaels, H., Gholson, M., & Sato, E. (2020). Scaffolding complex activities to strengthen the validity of next generation assessments. Presented at the Association of Test Publishers Annual Conference, Virtual, September 14, 2020.  

Gholson, M. (2020). Improving fairness: Theories of action and intentional design methods. Presented at the National Council for Measurement in Education 2020 Conference, Virtual, September 10, 2020. 

Gholson, M. (2020). Beyond Accommodations: Intentional Design Methods for Improving Validity When Assessing Diverse Populations. Accepted for National Council for Measurement in Education, San Francisco, CA April 19, 2020-delayed and presented September 9. 

Gholson, M., Michaels, H., & Sireci, S. (2019). Supporting validity evidence and technical analysis for maintaining a fair and comprehensive state assessment system. Presented at the Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2019 National Conference on Student Assessment, Orlando, FL. June 24. 

Karvonen, M., Gholson, M., Clark, A., & Wiegert, S. (2019). Measuring college and career readiness: How do we know if our alternate academic achievement standards are challenging and aligned? Presented at the Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2019 National Conference on Student Assessment, Orlando, FL. June 26. 

Gholson, M., Saal, L., & Hertz, K. (2019). Unmasking barriers to adult employment: WIOA, PIAAC Numeracy Skills, and Implications for the Field. A paper presented at the annual conference of the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) April 1, 2019. 

Gholson, M., & Saal, L. K. (2018). Associations between adults' numeracy skills and employment status: An analysis of PIAAC’s U.S. dataset. Do U.S. adults have the skills needed to thrive in the 21st century? 2018 AIR PIAAC research to practice conference, Arlington, VA, December 6, 2018.

Gholson, M., & Lyon, C. (2018). A logic model: Informing a theory of action for alternate English language proficiency assessments. Presented at the CCSSO Assessing Special Education Students (ASES) State Collaborative on Assessment and Students Standards (SCASS) Fall Meeting, Boston, MA, October 9, 2018. 

Gholson, M., Christensen, L., Ho, M., Johnston, M., Guzman-Ort, D. (2018). Accessibility and English Language Proficiency Assessments: Where Are We Now and What’s Next? National Conference on Student Assessment, San Diego, CA June 27, 2018. 

Clark, A., Gholson, M., Christmus, J., Winter, P. and Christensen, L. (2018). What Do We Know About Student with Significant Cognitive Disabilities Who Are English Learners? National Conference on Student Assessment, San Diego, CA, June 28, 2018. 

Gholson, M., Karvonen, M., Michaels, H. Montez-Lindner, T. and Weigert, S. (2018). Meeting ESSA Regulation Requirements and Supporting Students on Alternate English Language Proficiency Assessments. 2018 National Conference on Student Assessment, San Diego, CA, June 27, 2018. 

Gholson, M. (2018). Instructional strategies/Considerations for English learners with significant cognitive disabilities. Presented at the CCSSO ASES SCASS Winter Meeting, Miami, FL., February 21, 2018. 

Gholson, M. (2018). English learners with significant cognitive disabilities: Observations and interviews. [Invited speaker]. CCSSO Students with Disabilities Advisory Task Force Meeting, Dallas, TX, January 31, 2018.